Ruan was in town from the Bay Area, authorities believe, trying to set up a Seattle branch of the Jackson Street Boys, a San Francisco gang that has allegedly engaged in extortion, murder and a series of street shootouts with rivals.

"They (gang leaders) were coming up here, picking kids up and taking them back to Chinatown in San Francisco," said Inspector Roger Rusness of the Seattle Police Department's gang unit. "They would give them an indoctrination and . . . then bring them back up here as Jackson Street Boys."

Ruan's alleged recruiting efforts in Seattle illustrate a growing problem for law enforcement agencies attempting to control Asian organized crime: Like the pirates who once plied trade routes in the East China Sea, Asian gang members are increasingly using the corridor along Interstate 5 as a target area and getaway route for their criminal activities.

"There is a tremendous amount of (Asian organized) crime going on on the I-5 corridor," said Mike Soop, a gang investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"They travel up and down the interstate, doing jobs from Canada to the Mexican border. . . . They are very, very mobile."

The Ruan case is one of several examples of the menace along the I-5 corridor:

-- Two alleged members of a Laotian street gang in Portland called the Red Cobra Bloods (unrelated to the Los Angeles street gang called the Bloods) fled to Fresno on the interstate to avoid arrest in their home area. While hiding out in Fresno, police say, they committed several home-invasion burglaries.

The spree included the robbing, shooting and slaying of a Fresno jewelry store owner as a security camera made a videotape of their victim on his knees, begging for his life, police say.

The suspects are currently awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges in Fresno.

-- Federal agents investigating an October 1995 microchip robbery at a Beaverton, Ore., company called Supercomm uncovered evidence that the thieves had transported the stolen hardware to Sacramento for sale to an underworld broker.

The thieves allegedly were members of a "crew" associated with the John That Luong criminal organization of Northern California. Some had been involved in a series of similar armed "takeover" robberies in Fremont, Santa Clara, Monrovia and Los Angeles, authorities say.

All of the suspects in the Supercomm heist recently pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland.

-- Two alleged members of a largely Cambodian crime group, the Tiny Rascals Gangsters, are awaiting trial in the killing of five members of a Southeast Asian family in San Bernardino. The slayings -- part of a string of homicides the group allegedly committed -- occurred during a home-invasion robbery in August 1995. Authorities say members of the gang also participated in crimes in Pomona, Seattle, Sacramento, Spokane and Lynnwood.

One of the two suspects awaiting trial is suspected of involvement in seven West Coast slayings, while the other allegedly participated in double-homicides in Sacramento and Spokane, Wash.

Each of these cases shows that from Canada to Mexico, I-5 has increasingly become the turf of highly mobile criminal organizations engaged in complex illegal activities.

GANGS 2000 REPORT

The mobility of Asian organized crime groups was stressed in "Gangs 2000," an enormous report on California's criminal organizations released in 1993 by the state attorney general's office.

The report estimated there were as many as 15,000 Asian gang members in California at the time, mostly consisting of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian members, ages 13 to 35.

"They have increased their traveling patterns from coast to coast committing these crimes," the report says. "Their growing level of mobility and violence has made them a national crime problem."

Court records indicate that by the time of his arrest by Seattle authorities, Ruan had allegedly assembled a Seattle-based crew of at least a half-dozen Jackson Street gang underlings ranging in age from 15 to 18.

The youths considered Ruan to be their "Dai Lo" (Big Brother), or criminal boss, police say.

His arrest resulted from an incident in which Ruan and four other Jackson Street Boys allegedly assaulted a former member of the gang in a dispute over money, beating him into submission and shooting him in the thigh before fleeing.

RECORD IN SAN FRANCISCO

Ruan is well-known to San Francisco police who monitor gang activities. A criminal complaint filed in San Francisco Municipal Court in August -- while Ruan was still awaiting sentencing in the Seattle case -- accuses him of leading a gang-related assault on two employees of the Great Wall Theater in San Francisco's Chinatown.

The assault "was for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang, with the specific intent to promote further and assist in criminal conduct by gang members," says the complaint, signed by San Francisco police gang Investigator Phillip Wong.

Ruan's record includes arrests for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a loaded handgun in a public place and possession of gambling devices.

A police document in the San Francisco assault court file bears the terse notation, "Flight risk. Major player in local gang activities."

The gang Ruan allegedly belongs to is also notorious in San Francisco. Several members were arrested in June after allegedly attempting to extort the owners of Club Hong Kong, a nightspot on Clement Street in the Richmond district.

According to police reports and witness statements, a group of as many as 20 Jackson Street Boys smashed tables, chairs and bottles, and several patrons were badly cut when gang members began brawling with them.

Dennis Yang, an alleged Jackson Street gang member arrested with Ruan during the fistfight at the Great Wall Theater, is awaiting trial for assaulting customers during the extortion attempt at Cafe Hong Kong.

Court records on file in King County Superior Court show that at the time of his arrest in Seattle, Ruan brazenly told detectives that he was one of the Jackson Street Boys and threatened to "get" the investigators for arresting him.

Ruan ultimately was convicted of the Seattle assault charge but fled to San Francisco to avoid imprisonment in King County jail. He was arrested by San Francisco police last month and is now awaiting trial on the local assault charge, after which he is expected to be extradited to Seattle.

GANG ACTIVITY ALONG THE I-5 CORRIDOR

Like pirates plying

trade routes, Asian organized crime groups are cruising the

I-5 corridor, targeting the surrounding communities for criminal

activity.

Red Cobra Bloods: While avoiding the Portland

police, two members of a Laotian street gang called the Red

Cobra Bloods hid out in Fresno, where they allegedly committed

a number of home-invasion burglaries and robbed and shot a Fresno

jewelry store owner.

John That Luong organization: "Crews"

of criminals from this interstate crime ring committed armed

takeover-style robberies of microchips and other computer hardware

in Beaverton, Ore., Fremont, Santa Clara, Monrovia, Los Angeles,

Torrance and San Diego. Chips stolen in some of the robberies

were transported to Sacramento for sale.

Tiny Rascals Gangsters:

Members of this multi-ethnic criminal gang committed crimes

including home invasions and robberies in Pomona, Seattle, Sacramento,